History of Vina Del Mar

Before the arrival of the Spanish conquerors,
the original inhabitants of central Chile belonged to the ethnic group
known today as the Changos, who called the area now occupied by Viña del
Mar 'peuco', which prosaically meant, 'here there is water'. With the
arrival of the Europeans, the land gained a curious merit it had never
known before: economic value. By 1580 the area had become an 'encomienda'
(land and inhabitants entrusted to a particular conquistador); vineyards
were planted so physically creating the 'vines by the sea' la viña del
Mar.

A century later, these same lands were divided into two: south of the
Marga-Marga estuary up to Barón Hill was known as 'The Homestead of the
Seven Sisters', while the area northwards, all the way to Concón,
retained the original name, this time under the righteous ownership of
Jesuit priests.

Another hundred years passed. Rich Portuguese merchants sailed into the
bay of Valparaíso, and one of them, Francisco Álvares, liked the lands
he saw so much he bought them all, installing his estate house in the area
now occupied by the Quinta Vergara park, and taking as his wife one
Dolores Pérez. Both Francisco and Dolores took an enthusiastic interest
in the remoulding of the physical and cultural appearance of their
property, visibly expressed in the church Nuestra Señora de Dolores (the
Church of our Madame Dolores), and the landscaped gardens around the
estate house. These same gardens were to take on almost botanical status,
thanks to the exotic plants contributed by the couple's son, Salvador,
collected on his trips to the Far East and Australia in the mid-nineteenth
century.

However, during the same period another event was to take place that
was to have a major influence on the future development of the Vines by
the Sea: the railway arrived, linking the settlement with Valparaíso and
the central valley region.

Assistant engineer in these major public works was one José Francisco
Vergara Etchevers, who was eventually to marry Mercedes Álvares,
granddaughter of Francisco and sole heiress to the now immense family
fortune. His wealth assured, José Francisco then went about laying the
foundations for the development of the modern city, beginning this
glorious task in 1874.

However, Vergara's life was not only to be fervently dedicated to
commerce and urban development: he became a politician, was elevated to
the post of Interior Minister in the government of President Domingo Santa
María, and became Minister of War under President Anibal Pinto. He also
took part in the armed skirmish between Chile, Peru and Bolivia known as
the War of the Pacific (won by the British-backed Chileans) ' which led
him to choose the Peruvian names of Chorrillos and Miraflores for two new
districts in Viña del Mar.

Vergara ceded lands for such necessities as water services, schools, a
slaughter-house and cemetery, and sold the lands around the railway track
which became Álvares and Viana Streets. Mansion houses were constructed,
the back entrances of which led onto the road linking Valparaíso with
Quillota. The commerce that was carried out at the back of these buildings
literally paved the way for present day Valparaíso Avenue, the city's
main shopping street.

One of the main effects of the railway line was to increase the city's
population, and new installations needed to be built to cater to the ever
increasing needs of the people, including the local train station itself.

Afterwards the Miramar station was build, proposed by Dr Teodoro Von
Scroeders, so that more people might have access to the local thermal
baths. Von Scroeders also helped encourage the urbanisation project around
Castillo Hill. More neighbourhoods were created as a result of the railway
link, including Recreo in 1894, whose name (Spanish for recreation)
alludes to the custom of local inhabitants to enjoy their leisure time
faces turned to the sea. Around this period two city dignitaries by the
names of Luis Barros Borgoño and Alfredo Azancot (architects responsible
for the Rioja and Carrasco Palaces), undertook the redevelopment of the
Recreo shoreline, filling in the original reefs and replacing them with a
sand beach, so creating one of the most popular resorts along the whole
coastline.

New stops were also created for the trains at Chorrillos and El Salto,
the latter being named after a nearby waterfall.

Neighbouring landowner and politician Benjamín Vicuña Mackena, then
took his part in the creation of the present day Garden City. It was
partly Mackena's influence that led to Viña del Mar being developed as a
seaside holiday resort in the first place. He proposed the creation of
plazas and parks, of more attention put into landscaping, of new and more
flamboyant hotels to emphasise the town's recreational credentials, as
well as to receive the coveted visitors. These changes were highly
successful, both with the inhabitants of Viña del Mar, as well as people
living in the surrounding area. The Caleta Abarca cove area was the sector
initially chosen for this type of development.

By 1878 the growth in the population had spurned the need for
establishing some form of municipal authorities; permission to organise
such a body was requested from the Governor of Valparaíso, who took a
year to reply in the affirmative.

This heralded a golden period in the history of Viña del Mar; new
industries and public institutions made their appearance, spurning the
city's development especially in the sector around Libertad Avenue. In
part this was also the result of the economic heights being reached by
merchants in neighbouring and then extremely prosperous Valparaíso.

Local industry, led by the sugar refinery, demanded modernisation,
which led to the instalment of electric light in 1882, giving Viña del
Mar a status enjoyed by a highly select club of cities around the world
(in the same year Paris also switched on the electric current).

In 1889 José Francisco Vergara, the city's founding father, departed
for the great garden city in the sky, and his lands were divided among his
offspring. Daughter Blanca inherited everything south of the Marga-Marga,
and Salvador his son took the northern territories, which he started to
urbanise in 1892.

The major earthquake of 1906 brought a great part of all previous
constructions crashing to the ground, and a huge task of reconstruction
was undertaken by the local inhabitants. It was during that period that
such ostentatious projects as the Vergara and Carrasco Palaces, the
Délano mansion (that was to become the Fonck Museum), and Wulff Castle
were undertaken. By the nineteen thirties, Viña del Mar was deemed so
imporant that even the Chilean State stepped in to help, part-financing
the Hotel O'Higgins and Municipal Theatre in Plaza Vergara, as well as the
Presidential Palace, the Municipal Casino, Salinas resort, and an
urbanisation programme for the whole stretch of coastline between Reñaca
and Concón.

By then Avenida Valparaíso was totally built up, with a strong
tendency for the neo-classical in design and the historical-monumental in
proportions. European fashion trying to distance itself from the excesses
of Baroque. Foreign merchants who arrived and took up residency at that
time, opted for the same architectural style, albeit using lighter
materials such as wood in their neo-gothic, colonial English or North
American town-houses. An eclectic form of architecture still to be found
today in many of the buildings dating back to that vertiginous period.

During the nineteen fifties the Caleta Abarca resort took shape, as did
the Marina and Perú avenues. And the sixties and seventies also saw the
city's changing face, with special emphasis placed on the development of
the Reñaca district, with the construction of numerous hotels and other
tourist infrastructure that completely transformed this previously
industrial sector.

And so it was that in the course of 126 years, this one time coastal
vineyard has become one of the most affluent holiday playgrounds in Chile
and South America, its once verdant shoreline now almost completely
urbanised, but with the saving grace of parklands, plazas and gardens that
help personify this City of Vines by the Sea.